From 2011-2015, CSF engaged in a comprehensive global initiative through the Biodiversity Understanding in Infrastructure and Landscape Development (BUILD) program of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This report highlights key elements of this multi-year, multi-continent set of infrastructure related projects, and includes an appendix of all activities by region.

CSF International Course graduate Prakash Mani Sharma, Executive Director and Senior Advocate for Pro Public, wrote to us last month with some stunning news. On April 16th, 2015, the Supreme Court of Nepal set a precedent in the area of environment protection by ordering the closure of the mining company, Godawari Marble Industries. This decision is the result of over a decade of litigation by Pro Public to protect the 330 species of butterflies, 254 birds, 80 tree varieties, and 571 types of fruits in Godawari and the Phulchowki hills near the mine.

In May Conservation Strategy Fund and World Wide Fund for Nature - Nepal (WWF Nepal) held a one-day policy forum on biodiversity conservation and infrastructure development. The forum covered environmental economics and policy tools used to integrate conservation and infrastructure plans in Nepal. The discussion focused on how infrastructure planning and decision-making could be improved across the Himalayan Region. Dr. Krishna Chandra Paudel, Secretary of Nepal’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, specifically addressed the need to comprehensively evaluate infrastructure projects and policies at the national level.

One of the cornerstones of the Initiative is a network of CSF Training Partner organizations offering conservation economics training in parts of the world where we do not have our own training teams. The Network will be supported by CSF and by our academic partners throughout the globe.